Mourners gathered in a remote south China county on Saturday to mourn a French woman who had sponsored local education for ten years – recently died in a fire.

Francoise Grenot-Wang, aged 59, died in a fire in her wooden house on Dec. 9, in the Miao Autonomous County of Rongshui in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Madame Grenot-Wang gave herself the Chinese name “Fang Fang”. She arrived at the small county in 1997 as a guide of French organization Doctors Without Borders. She found the children, especially girls, lacked education and decided to stay.

During the ten years, 5,775 school-age children had received her help and more than 15 million yuan (about 2.2 million U.S. dollars) had been donated to build new schools and buy books with the efforts of Fang Fang, said the local authorities.

Her projects will continue.